Inside Teacher Education: Challenging Prior Views of Teaching and Learning


Book Description

Learning to teach is complex. Teacher candidates begin a preservice program with powerful tacit assumptions about how teachers teach based on lengthy apprenticeships of observation over many years as students. Virtually all teacher education programs provide a mixture of coursework and classroom experience. Much has been written about the theory-into-practice approach in teacher education, an approach that assumes teacher candidates who have been provided with instructions about how to teach will be able to recall and apply them in a school setting. In reality, teacher candidates report considerable difficulty enacting theory in practice, to the point that many question the value of coursework. This book takes an in-depth look at five future teachers in one teacher education program, analyzing and interpreting how they and their teacher educators learn from experience during both coursework and practicum experiences. Many assumptions about the complex challenges of teaching teachers are called into question. Is the role of a teacher educator to synthesize research-based best practices for candidates to take to their field placements? Does the preservice practicum experience challenge or reinforce a lifetime of socialized experiences in schools? Must methods courses always be seen by most teacher candidates as little more than sites for collecting resources? Where and how do candidates construct professional knowledge of teaching? The data illustrate clearly that methods courses can be sites for powerful learning that challenges tacit assumptions about how and why we teach.




Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning


Book Description

Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning answers an urgent call for teachers who educate children from diverse backgrounds to meet the demands of a changing world. In today’s knowledge economy, teachers must prioritize problem-solving ability, adaptability, critical thinking, and the development of interpersonal and collaborative skills over rote memorization and the passive transmission of knowledge. Authors Linda Darling-Hammond and Jeannie Oakes and their colleagues examine what this means for teacher preparation and showcase the work of programs that are educating for deeper learning, equity, and social justice. Guided by the growing knowledge base in the science of learning and development, the book examines teacher preparation programs at Alverno College, Bank Street College of Education, High Tech High’s Intern Program, Montclair State University, San Francisco Teacher Residency, Trinity University, and University of Colorado Denver. These seven programs share a common understanding of how people learn that shape similar innovative practices. With vivid examples of teaching for deeper learning in coursework and classrooms; interviews with faculty, school partners, and novice teachers; surveys of teacher candidates and graduates; and analyses of curriculum and practices, Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning depicts transformative forms of teaching and teacher preparation that honor and expand all students’ abilities, knowledges, and experiences, and reaffirm the promise of educating for a better world.




Re-Exploring Play and Playfulness in Early Childhood Teacher Education


Book Description

This book explores early childhood teacher educators’ lived experiences in designing and implementing intentional play-based approaches in teaching preservice teachers. The chapters cover action research, teaching stories about playful classroom practices, and diverse narratives about developing preservice teachers’ positive views toward play. Early childhood teacher educators will be encouraged to (re)explore their beliefs about the roles of play and playfulness in higher education. Readers will learn playful strategies to actively engage preservice teachers in building meaningful knowledge about play and how to use play to support young children’s learning across varied cultural contexts, experiences, and individual differences.




Teacher Educators as Members of an Evolving Profession


Book Description

Teachers are viewed as the major element in successful schooling and play a central role in educational improvement. It is argued that the single most important factor in improving the quality of education is linked to the increased general and professional education of teachers.




Handbook of Research on Science Education


Book Description

Volume III of this landmark synthesis of research offers a comprehensive, state-of-the-art survey highlighting new and emerging research perspectives in science education. Building on the foundations set in Volumes I and II, Volume III provides a globally minded, up-to-the-minute survey of the science education research community and represents the diversity of the field. Each chapter has been updated with new research and new content, and Volume III has been further developed to include new and expanded coverage on astronomy and space education, epistemic practices related to socioscientific issues,design-based research, interdisciplinary and STEM education, inclusive science education, and the global impact of nature of science and scientific inquiry literacy. As with the previous volumes, Volume III is organized around six themes: theory and methods of science education research; science learning; diversity and equity; science teaching; curriculum and assessment; and science teacher education. Each chapter presents an integrative review of the research on the topic it addresses, pulling together the existing research, working to understand historical trends and patterns in that body of scholarship, describing how the issue is conceptualized within the literature, how methods and theories have shaped the outcomes of the research, and where the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps are in the literature. Providing guidance to science education faculty, scholars, and graduate students, and pointing towards future directions of the field, Handbook of Research on Science Education Research, Volume III offers an essential resource to all members of the science education community.




Becoming a Metacognitive Teacher


Book Description

How can early and preservice teachers master the complex practice of teaching? This clearly written, research-based guide shows how to successfully navigate coursework, build relationships with mentors, and negotiate fieldwork and student teaching while developing metacognitive thinking skills. These are skills that allow teachers to continuously reflect on instructional practices and adapt them to fit their own teaching context and their students’ diverse needs. Metacognitive teaching requires higher-level thought processes that, for teachers, include making connections among each segment of the teacher preparation program, as well as deciding how these experiences directly and effectively apply to their classrooms. The authors argue that this kind of support is needed early in the journey of a teacher if they are to succeed and remain in the classroom. “To foster metacognitive thinking among our students, teachers must have sophisticated metacognitive skills themselves. This unique and well-grounded text demonstrates the critical role of metacognition in developing the craft of effective teaching for preservice and novice teachers." —William Brozo, professor of literacy, School of Education, George Mason University “Comprehensive and practical, this text provides an artful and thoughtful blend of strategies for prospective teachers' personal and professional development. The goal of developing thinking teachers who keep their students at the forefront is supported with the author’s discussion of their and others’ personal and research histories, rich vignettes, and access to multiple digital resources (e.g., TED talks, blogs, instructional videos). A text for both teacher educators and prospective teachers.” —Victoria J. Risko, professor emerita, Vanderbilt University




Writing as a Method for the Self-Study of Practice


Book Description

This book focuses on the writing process in the self-study of teaching and teacher education practices. It addresses writing as an area in which teacher educators can develop their skills and represents how to write in ways that are compatible with self-study's orientations towards the inquiry, both personal and on practice. The book examines effective self-study writing with chapters written by experienced self-study practitioners. In addition to considering elements of writing as a method for the self-study of practice, it delves into the cognitive processes of real writers making explicit their writing practices. Practical suggestions are connected to the lived experiences of self-study practitioners making sense of their field through the process of writing. This book will be of interest to doctoral and novice self-study writers, and experienced authors seeking to develop their practice. It demonstrates that writing as a method of inquiry in self-study and beyond can be learned, modeled and taught.




Emotion and School


Book Description

The book differs from other books on emotions in teaching by acknowledging all relationships within the complex system of schools and the ways that emotion influences the relationship and practice of the those working within schools- administration, teacher-peer, teacher- student, and veteran- novice.




Interrogating Authenticity in Outdoor Education Teacher Education


Book Description

This book addresses student passivity in teacher education. Using a developed metaphor, the author critically examines the use of authentic learning to design and implement learning experiences for preservice teachers, and reveals the opportunities and limitations of a focus on authenticity. This book prepares teachers for outdoor education using practice-based exemplars of applied teaching theories. Focusing on authentic pedagogies, it applies to all teacher educators who seek to engage in high-impact learning for their students, and is relevant for in-service educators, preservice teachers and researchers in the field of self-study.




Teacher Development and Teacher Education in Developing Countries


Book Description

This book contributes to understanding of how individual teachers in developing countries grow and evolve throughout their careers. Based on the analysis of 150 autobiographies of teachers from a range of regions in the developing world including Central Asia, South Asia, East Africa and the Middle East, the author celebrates individual teachers’ voices and explores their narratives. What can these narratives tell us about ‘becoming’ and 'being’ a teacher, and the process of teacher development? What is different about ‘becoming’ and ‘being’ a teacher in the developing world? By analysing the distinct narratives, the author explores these central questions and discusses the implications for further teacher development and education in these regions. In doing so, she transforms teachers’ embodied knowledge into public knowledge, shining a light onto the challenges they face in the Global South and exploring how research can be advanced in the future. This uniquely researched book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of education in the developing world.